When the hunter turns saviour

Good cause When the tiger is saved, it sets off a domino effect that saves its prey, their food source and every small and big species thriving in the  vast habitat. The tiger thus ensures that the entire kingdom is safe, observes Atula Gupta

The kingdom of an emperor is defined by its geography and its dwellers and it is often the king who ensures that the resources suffice the needs of his subjects. Whether you look at this scenario from a human perspective or from the perspective of the forest king, the outcome remains the same.

A tiger, just like human beings, has a vital obligation towards its forest kingdom. That of being the primary predator and thus the primary controller that helps sustains the balance between resources and consumers of the forest. When the tiger, the umbrella species is saved, it thus starts a domino effect that saves its prey, their food source and every small and big species thriving in the vast habitat. The tiger thus is not called the king in vain. Its safety ensures that the entire kingdom is safe too.

Habitat saviour

The concept of an umbrella species was first proposed in 1981 when Frankel and Soule suggested that directing conservation measures at large species could provide protection to other species that were not the focus of the conservation efforts. But why is the tiger an umbrella species?

According to Ullas Karanth, one of the most prominent conservationists and tiger experts of India, every week, a tiger must kill one large prey animal. This can be a deer, antelope, wild pig or wild cattle. Therefore, in order to sustain a population of 100 tigers which also includes 25 territory holding females with cubs, at least a prey population of 50,000 animals is needed.

To give all these animals a suitable habitat, even if not very roomy, 25 animals living in each square kilometer would need a 2,000 sq. km. area. Karanth also says that if the tiger is living in a habitat like a mangrove forest where prey population is lesser, they need even more habitat and a larger area to live and hunt.

Thus, with a ratio of 500 prey for one tiger, a very large area of forest cover can be protected. This can eventually help protect a number of species thriving in the jungle, from a giant tree to an endangered frog.

Diminishing status

Sadly, the tiger has lost hold of its empire in the last 150 years. Today, the 1,706 tigers estimated to be present in India, fit in a mere six per cent of the country’s forest cover. Although the forest cover suitable for tigers occurs in over 3,00,000 square kilometers in India, surviving source populations occur in less than 25,000 square kilometers!

The protected reserves too are of not much help. Although now there are 40 or so tiger reserves covering 40,000 square kilometers, several of these simply cannot support viable source populations on their own, and, some are even virtually devoid of tigers.
Poaching for tiger parts has re-surfaced as a major curse in the last few years. Only last month, a tiger was chopped into pieces and left strewn around the Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. Poachers now function as a well operated gang and use everything, from traditional snares to ammunitions to kill the wild cats and sell them to South Asian countries for huge profits.

But while poaching is a recurrent crisis, the overhunting of prey population of deers and sambhar is perhaps a problem that is even more dangerous and often overlooked.
Human encroachment of precious tiger habitat too is what is making life for the tigers so challenging.

Unplanned conservation

India, along with 12 other tiger nations of the world, has set a goal to double the tiger population globally by 2022. While the efforts to achieve this target are constantly made, what they lack is a planned cohesive approach. In a part of Corbett reserve, camera surveillance is now being used to observe the tigers 24x7. In Maharashtra, the state government has made the bold move of allowing rangers to shoot poachers on sight.

Armed commandoes have been deployed in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to scare poachers away. The autonomous systems of protection are excellent, but it is the unison of their ideas that will ultimately re-instate a lost empire.

Karanth also feels that massive investments targeted at tiger reserves in the name of conservation, appear to be taking the form of misguided and destructive “habitat management” practices on one hand, and rural development activities under the label of “eco-development” on the other.

He rightly remarks, “Conservation action must be rooted in sound science, although conservation actors may necessarily be inspired by the sheer emotional appeal of the big cat. Given protection and reasonable management, India can hold at least five times more tigers than it does now.”

Under the umbrella

That the tiger is a remarkable representative of the entire ecosystem is an undeniable fact. It is also unquestionable that saving this umbrella species can alter the imbalance of the entire natural habitat. But while the concept stamps the importance of saving the tigers, what we need to understand is that the umbrella tag expands the protection work and does not simplify it.

From the wild mushroom growing in the forest cover, to the giant trees, elephants, leopards and other mammals, each and every species has to be cherished and nurtured in order to save the primary predator. If the tiger is protecting the kingdom, the kingdom too is working to save their king.